Dr. Mark Crest is working on a teleportation device.  Bets are being taken on the outcome of today’s test using animals.  I appreciate that the betting pools on the board are:

• Super-Intelligent Dog (3:2)
• Animal Soup (7:1)
• The Fly (20:1)
• Total Success (100:1)

We also learn that Mark was a naughty boy sexing it up in the cloak room at Lt. Glade’s party last night.  Even more so after Julie joined him.

That has gotten him in trouble with Dr. Cleo Lazar. With a minimum of additional melodrama, they begin the countdown.  The test is to transport a dog and a raccoon “a few miles”.  Wait, how could that result in a “super-intelligent dog”?  Doesn’t that imply the raccoon is super-dooper intelligent?  And what happens to the cute tail and bandit eyes?  Frankly, the smart money is on “Animal Soup”.  A wormhole is created and the animals disappear.  Glade gets excited, but I feel like that is the easy part.  Unfortunately, the animals do not reappear in the lab.  The field keeps expanding, so Mark heroically runs across the lab and unplugs the transformer in an explosive shower of light and sparks.^[1]

He finds himself back in time, 18 hours before the test.  And wearing the same shirt, BTW.  Cleo is in a different outfit, so what gives? ^[2]  He chalks it up to deja vu.  Julie flirts with him, but Cleo interrupts them.  She is already steamed that Mark hijacked her idea for disposing of toxic nuclear waste and corrupted it into a transporter.  Here’s an idea: transport it!

That night, they are at the aforementioned party (and Mark has still not bothered to put on a fresh shirt).  Julie purposely spills champagne on his shirt, so he goes to the aforementioned cloak room rather than, say, a laundry room or kitchen with running water.  Wait, this is replaying the previous night, so he also did not change his shirt after champagne being spilled on it and before work the next day?  Anyhoo, Julie follows him into the cloakroom and begins seducing him.  After some smooching, they come out, to the distress of Cleo.

At work the next day, in the same shirt — having been worn now for at least 36 hours and having endured 2 champagne spills — the deja vu really kicks in when he sees the odds board again.  Everything occurs as before.  The field expands, he runs across the lab, he pulls the plug.  And once again time travels to 18 hours before the test.

Deleted Scene: Cleo goes to the salon and asks for the Ayn Rand.

Since Cleo doesn’t hate him yet, he tries to convince her that they have created a time loop.  He fills a board with equations and tells her he has seen the detonation twice, but she doesn’t believe him.  He tells Glade the same story, and is removed from the project.  Julie finds him, though, and brings him to the test site.  He tries to stop the test, and Glade tries to abort it.  But the device goes off again and Mark goes back 18 hours again.

There are more iterations and reveals, including multiple saboteurs.  It is also pointed out that the time loop is getting smaller each time (i.e. Mark goes slightly less far back in time on each iteration).  This point alone feels very original.  This episode is OK, but the ever-tightening time loop is an idea that could be made into an excellent nail-biter.

Other Stuff:

• [1] Kevin Nealon does a surprisingly credible job as Dr. Crest, despite his main experience being only from SNL, and comedy movies or Adam Sandler movies.  That said, his scream at that moment is pretty bad; like he was back on SNL reacting in a Halloween sketch or to a dropped cue card.
• [2] You are thinking that maybe Dr. Crest is like Einstein or Brundlefly, and has a closet full of the same shirt.  But no, he says his girlfriend gave it to him.
• Teri Hawkes (Dr. Lazar) played Jellico in Cube Zero.  Ronny Cox (Lt. Glade) played Jellico on Star Trek TNG.  Crazy, man.